In 2014, a mid-term elections, building community based power will be critical to our communities--especially as a network of 17 conservative groups backed by the Koch brothers raised at least $407 million during the 2012 campaign. It is critical that grassroots organizations join together to empower community based organizations to develop and lead voter outreach campaigns in state, local, and federal elections, now and beyond.

"Still, it comes as a big surprise that while we have been declaring race dead, structural racism has clearly increased. In fact 50 years after Civil Rights, 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and during the first black presidency, white Americans currently hold at least 19 times the wealth of African-Americans (Kochhar 2010: 3). " Read more about the historic implications of capitalism, wealth building, and the burdens of debt for African Americans.

In 1964, about 19 percent of the U.S. population lived in poverty. Today, the national poverty rate hovers around 15 percent, 50 years after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared his "war on poverty." Healthcare and food programs such as SNAP, housing subsidies, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, "Despite their effectiveness at reducing poverty...